Achieving true peace in the Middle East requires achieving personal peace first

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Published
7:00 pm CDT, Monday, August 2, 2010

To the editor:

Wherever there is violence there can be no lasting peace for violence begets only violence.

Indeed I encourage America to listen to the voice of history and end its war in the Middle East.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), one of the most remarkable Americans of the 20th century once said: "Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace unless there is soul peace."

Indeed the Kingdom of God is within each and everyone of us and it is there that the battle for peace is truly fought for and won.

Bishop Sheen said that three things are necessary for peace: the subjection of the passions to the intellect, the subjection of the body to the soul and the subjection of the whole person to God.

Once these are achieved we become cleansed of past sins and safeguarded from committing future sins.

Peace involves a certain violence. Not that external wrath we often commit against our neighbor in the name of peace, but rather it is the internal violence against self, against its selfishness, greed, lust and pride.

Man has nothing to lose but the chains of sin, which darkens his intellect and weakens his will.

By throwing off sin through the merits of Christ, man becomes a child of God, an heir of Heaven, enjoying inner peace in this life and even amidst its trials, and an ultimate and final ecstasy of love in heaven.

Only by dying in Christ and by conquering oneself can true peace be achieved.